Guitar
Hero Encore Rocks the 80's is an expansion pack that features an
interesting selection of classic rock anthems and pop songs from nearly
twenty years ago. The gameplay and conventions remain largely unchanged,
though the characters have been given more appropriate attire and wacky
haircuts to match the era. The song selection is mixed this time, with
some odd new-wave pop mixed with hair metal to create a somewhat jarring
clash of styles. There's a decent selection of around two dozen tracks and
the game offers some cool unlockables as well. It's good for what it is,
but GH Rocks the 80's doesn't offer much in the way of new ideas.
Guitar Hero and its sequel have created
quite a sensation over the past year, spawning contests, websites and
several high-profile imitators. Hoping to capitalize on this success,
Activision and Harmonix have released the first expansion pack for the
series, Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80's for the Playstation 2. Taking
the newly successful franchise back to the days of hair-metal and glam
rock, Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80's offers a decent selection of
nostalgic metal and rock tracks for older players. Bands like Quiet Riot
and Flock of Seagulls have long since fallen off the pop charts and these
old tracks will probably only be familiar to older players. The game does
a decent job of recreating the 80's vibe and its characters have been
given makeovers, with the old-school mullets and animal print spandex that
defined the 80s style of music. Encore's basic gameplay mechanics remain
largely unchanged from previous versions so this should be a familiar
experience for those who've played the other games.
Guitar Hero Encore's accessible gameplay
is deceptively straightforward and easy to understand. The basic premise
is that you are a guitar player and your mission is to follow the notes as
they appear on the screen and use the fret buttons on the controller to
hit in time to when they hit your time bar. It's somewhat tricky at first
but becomes easier once you get the timing down. The trick is to hold down
the strum bar before the notes hit, which requires some dexterity.
Depending on which difficulty setting you use, they come down at different
speeds in time to the song, making it important to keep the beat and feel
of each track. When playing in the easier levels, this is relatively easy
to perform. Once you get to the harder levels, you'll need better timing
and coordination, since notes come at you faster. The patterns also become
more complex since you need to strike chords with multiple buttons. These
are harder to perform since need to be pressed at the same time to create
these notes, making things more complicated. Some notes need to be pushed
when they hit your status bar, while others need to be held down to create
a longer note to create longer notes. As you get the feel of each song and
learn its rhythms, you can use the whammy bar to wail and make the notes
sing which increases your score and ratings.
As
you shred through each of these old songs, the crowd's reaction will rank
your playing ability. If you consistently hit notes and chain combos, your
rock meter will rise. When you miss notes, your ranking will fall. If you
miss too many notes, the meter will start flashing red and if you miss too
many notes, the song will end prematurely. In addition, the score will
rise if you hit notes in succession, which helps competitive modes.
Combining multiple notes also increases your score multiplier, which goes
through the roof the better your performance is. Consistently hitting the
notes will rock the crowd, and increases your score and ratings. Adding to
these cues, you'll also hear the cheers and boos of the crowds as you
play, which helps to set the mood for each performance. If you really
start doing well, you're special Star Power Meter will rise. When the Star
Power meter is filled up, you can implement this special mode for a short
time, and cause your guitarist to perform some super moves that will
really rock the crowd. This can help to increase your score even more and
helps you to achieve super-human score much faster. Learning how and when
to implement these special moves is a key element in beating the songs and
unlocking additional tracks.
Guitar Hero Encore includes several
modes of play to help anyone go from groupie to legend without much
effort. There's a practice training mode is included which helps you learn
the basics. The game has several levels of difficulty and these play a
large role in the complexity and challenge you'll face. Guitar Hero II
starts off simply enough, but its harder levels throw many notes at you at
much faster speeds, requiring a great deal of skill. The solo modes are a
lot of fun, but the game also lets you battle it out with another player
in multiplayer mode. Playing the solo mode is fun in short bursts, but
most players will probably get bored of the same half-dozen songs after
awhile. In order to unlock more tunes, you need to go into the game's
Career mode. Here, you can start and name your band, select your avatar
character, and more. The good thing about this expansion pack is that it
offers all of the modes from the other games, so it doesn't feel cheap or
half-baked.
The
game uses essentially the same engine and many of the same rock band
environments as you've seen in GHII, though some of the decorations and
posters have been changed to reflect the time period, which is a nice
touch. For those players who already own GH I or II, the game allows you
to use your Guitar controllers and is fully compatible with most third
party controllers as well. This adds a new dimension to the gameplay and
helps to make this a more immersive and exciting experience. While your
reaction to the game will probably vary depending on how much you enjoyed
this era of music, Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80's is essentially the
same game that came out a few months ago with a neon paint job. While it
won't exactly win points for originality, it's a solid game that should
please fans of the series.
Grade:
C+
